Job Description

Ontrac Solutions is seeking a highly skilled Staff-Level ML Architect to support an urgent staff augmentation engagement for one of our clients.

This is a highly technical, hands-on leadership role for someone who can operate as both the technical anchor for an ML engineering pod and the strategic bridge to senior Product, Engineering, and Data leadership .

The ideal candidate has deep experience architecting and deploying production-grade AI/ML systems, leading small technical teams, and establishing reliable MLOps patterns in complex environments. This person will be expected to stay hands-on with the code while also helping manage stakeholder alignment, technical direction, and execution priorities.

Required Credentials

• 8+ years of experience in machine learning, software engineering, data engineering, or related technical roles.
• 3+ years of experience in a senior, staff-level, architect, or technical lead capacity.
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, Machine Learning, or equivalent practical experience.

Required Qualifications

• Strong hands-on experience architecting, building, and deploying production-grade AI/ML systems.
• Deep expertise with LLMs, agentic workflows, AI agents, tool-calling, sub-agents, and fine-tuned foundation models.
• Experience using or integrating with Model Context Protocol (MCP) in production or near-production environments.
• Strong architectural knowledge of the GCP ecosystem , including Vertex AI and modern MLOps pipelines.
• Experience with MLOps tools and patterns, including Spark , Airflow , CI/CD, model deployment, monitoring, and governance.
• Proficiency with real-time inference optimization tools and patterns, including Triton or similar technologies.
• Strong Infrastructure-as-Code experience, preferably with Terraform .
• Ability to lead and mentor a pod of ML engineers while remaining highly hands-on with design, implementation, code review, and deployment.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to translate complex technical requirements and constraints for non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven ability to protect engineering teams from scope creep, organizational friction, and unclear priorities while maintaining strong stakeholder alignment.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the hands-on technical lead for a pod of three ML Engineers supporting a large-scale digital product platform.
• Architect, build, and deploy advanced AI systems using raw and fine-tuned LLMs, AI agents, sub-agents, tool-calling, and MCP integrations.
• Establish and enforce reliable MLOps deployment patterns, coding standards, architecture standards, and engineering best practices.
• Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Data, and senior leadership to shape AI/ML strategy and execution priorities.
• Provide technical direction, code-level guidance, and architectural oversight across the ML engineering pod.
• Act as a project and program management buffer for the technical team, helping manage roadmap alignment, stakeholder communication, and delivery expectations.
• Ensure production AI/ML systems are scalable, maintainable, secure, observable, and aligned with business and product goals.

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience supporting consumer-facing platforms, marketplace products, social platforms, or other high-scale digital products.
• Experience working in fast-moving staff augmentation, consulting, or client-facing technical environments.
• Experience balancing executive-level communication with deep technical execution.
• Prior experience leading urgent or high-priority AI/ML transformation initiatives.

About Ontrac Solutions

Ontrac Solutions is a strategic consulting and technology solutions firm helping companies innovate, create, and elevate through digital product consulting, cloud solutions, AI-based data solutions, and staff augmentation. We partner with clients to bring the right technical expertise, execution support, and strategic guidance to complex business and technology initiatives.

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